RONIN

Freese has done many interviews about this. A quick summary:

1. He joined out of curiosity because Axl had turned into Howard Hughes by that point and people in the industry were wondering what he was up to.

2. Axl was extremely cool to him and gave him tons of creative freedom.

3. He worked on a bunch of instrumental tracks and became bored with the inactivity. Most of the time he'd be in the studio and he'd be one of the only people there. After 2 years of that, he didn't want to waste any more time as he felt that the record was going to take years to complete due to Axl's glacial pace of working. Apparently him and Buckethead brought Brain into the band.

4. Every interview he's done since have wanted to dig up dirt on Axl but Freese has always been extremely positive about his time in the band and his experience with Axl.

Robin Finck and Buckethead left for pretty much the same reasons -- I think in Buckethead's case he was also being bullied by those fuckwits Del James and Tommy Stinson which made his decision to leave easier. Stinson was also rumored to be an a-hole to Bumblefoot as well.

Bad publicity or not, FAT AXL has made Axl and GnR more relevant in the news than anything the idiots in GnR's marketing team can come up with. Two weeks to go on the reunion tour and nothing but radio silence until this meme started trending. I say it's a blessing in disguise.

VIVA FAT AXL!

Let's call a spade, a spade. Frank is a poor man's Brain. 

Ironically, in one of Brain's recent interviews he mentions that Frank is a better fit for GnR than him because Frank is a rock drummer and close in style to Steven Adler since he plays loose. 

In my opinion, Frank sucks. Period. Brain was a kickass drummer..best drummer GnR ever had. So was Freese who is a beast on drums. Sorum was great post Illusions (loved his work on Spaghetti Incident, Sympathy for the Devil and VR). Basically anyone would be better than Frank.

What are your favorite "metal" songs from UYI and how would you categorize them?

Here's how I see it:

Tier 1 (thrash)

Garden of Eden - Strongest cut by far for me. I think all 3 songs are classics, but GOE has a wild unhinged craziness about it. The energy is off the fucking charts... and the video is all kinds of amazing 

Perfect Crime

Right Next Door to Hell

Tier 2 (Punk Metal/Hard Rock hybrids)

You Could Be Mine

Don't Damn Me -- You could be Mine is probably the strongest cut, but my favorite is Don't Damn Me which has some of Axl's best lyrics. I was torn between Don't Damn Me and Dead Horse (another Axl classic), but I think Don't Damn Me rocks harder.

Dead Horse

shotgun blues

Get in the Ring

Tier 3 (Metal epics)

Coma 

Locomotive  - Coma is the better song as Locomotive has a weaker chorus and Axl's voice can get a bit abrasive here (Locomotive, YCBM, The Garden, and Yesterdays have that "cat being put into a shredder" Axl voice), but the riff is just EPIC. Coma has an epic riff as well, but Locomotive literally sounds like a locomotive and the lyrics are awesome. But the reason I choose this as a favorite of mine is for that outro -- it's just a thing of beauty. The creative peak of the band imho. I've heard some people call this song "funk metal" a la RHCP -- I'm not sure what it is, but whatever it is, it's weird, it's pissed off and it calls itself LOCOMOTIVE. Slash rules on this.

13 hours ago, Bono said:

Absolute nonsense. Revionist history that people continue to perpetuate. This shit is nothing more than urban legend or fabricated hyperbol from the media. It makes a better story when talking about Cobain to say Grunge killed GnR. GnR were still so fucking popular when I graduated that Yesterdays was even voted the grad song. That was in 1996. Grunge didn't engulf or kill GnR in any way. The only thing that stopped GnR was they stopped. That's it. 

Agreed 100% but it seems to be the traditional narrative and whether we like it or not, the history of the band and its grunge counterparts are seen that way by the majority. Perception is reality and unfortunately for gnr fans, this is what the band's history will be perceived as.

It's undeniable that grunge bands had stolen a lot of heat from GnR and were seen as a much cooler (and relevant) alternative by the media -- this can be seen in the many pop culture references of that era in movies and tv shows where grunge references are ubiquitous. How visible was GnR in pop culture from the mid 90's? Nirvana broke up at the same time and remained relevant long after Guns had faded away from the mainstream. It is what it is.

Unfortunately for us, the Illusion albums were lost in the grunge wave (along with many other cool albums of that era like Michael Jackson's Dangerous) -- just bad timing that the grunge bands broke through in late '91. GnR waited too long to release their followup to AFD. These albums would have dominated even a year prior in 1990.

I was a freshman in high school in '96 and in my school there was zero buzz or interest in GnR amongst my friends. Aside from a few friends who were Cobain/metallica devotees, most of us were into stuff like smashing pumpkins, NIN, green day, etc. Punk/post-grunge bands and nu metal ruled that time. Atleast in my circle, GnR were perceived as uncool and an old/outdated band. This is all subjective needless to say but from my memories of that time, buzz about GnR seemed to start picking up only in '99/00 with that End of Days song "Oh My God". That would have been a perfect time to reboot Guns -- they were gone long enough to become retro cool again.

Yes. They should have released Illusions 1 in 1990 and Illusions 2 in 1991 -- it would have given the audience plenty of time to digest the material and Illusions 1 would have prepared fans for the prog-rock direction of Illusions 2. 

They waited too long and were engulfed by the grunge wave. Releasing the albums earlier would have given the Illusions more staying power.

On 6/5/2016 at 7:44 AM, estranged_85 said:

who cares if he do a couple of costume changes ffs? It´s not like the whole show gets ruined because of a new jacket or hat lol. ACDC have their bell and canons and all that shit so i don´t know if that can be called strip down show..

BUT, i agree on the album part. CD would IMO be much better if it were stripped down a little..

Are you serious?! correct me if i´m wrong.. do you want Axl do ditch the piano in November Rain or do you want Dizzy as the only piano player on that song?

Yes, I'm serious -- the shows wouldn't miss a beat if Axl stopped playing piano. Do we really need a 15 minute piano solo before November Rain? Just sing the song with Dizzy playing keyboard -- it would rock harder. Just my opinion though -- I never really warmed to seeing a giant grand piano on stage.

Some good ideas and great solos from Buckethead, but it suffers badly from overproduction and the frankenstein-ish process of stitching together thousands of different takes from different band members. Bumblefoot should never have been on this album and many of the older demos for the songs sound better.

The songs need some grit, balls, sleaze...whatever you want to call it. It's clear that Duff and Slash were the "guns" in GnR. Where are the heavy riffs in this album? It's not really even a guitar driven album like AFD and Illusions. 

12 hours ago, classicrawker said:

Jeez people lighten up Breuer  is not criticizing Axl he is just expressing his opinion as he is a very close friend of Brian's......

Jim actually just put out a Rock album and did this song with Brian and sings with him.  He was on Howard Stern yesterday and told the story that when they played it back Brian could not tell when it was him or Breuer singing at times........Jim does an amazing Brian Johnson imitation IMHO

 

 

 

Does this sound like a guy who likes Axl/Gnr?

27 minutes ago, IncitingChaos said:

 

13 minutes ago, IncitingChaos said:

Oh and the most damning thing in this whole interview is Axl saying, the reunion didn't happen by chance, it was something I'd been working towards for a while it was just timing didn't feel right sometimes...it was always possible....WTF!!! 

This makes me believe that the mid 2000 reunion rumors were true, Slash not being happy with VR, Axl losing bucket head, it seems like the reunion is something that could have spawned from Robin leaving after CD released or pretty much at any time! 

I just don't see why he created this hatred towards Slash in a way that made us believe he could kill Slash if he saw him or break down in tears....this was all a petty argument over some made up stories in Slash's book....Goddamnit! 

Agreed -- some weird revelations in this interview. I don't understand wtf he was waiting for if the reunion was looked at as a possibility years ago. 

Sounds like there's still a lot of uncertainty re: Duff and Slash being on a future GnR album or being a cohesive unit after the tour. I thought that would be definitive that this is the lineup that will be releasing future albums...

Does anyone how/why Angus and Brian fell out? It seems like Brian was unceremoniously booted from AC/DC.

So he'd rather make generic cock rock with a geriatric AC/DC than do guns with Duff and Slash? If he wanted to join NIN or some other band he had a hard-on for like pearl jam -- atleast that would make sense.

For a guy that's not into "appetite" sounding stuff, he has a funny way of showing it ?

The guitar interplay between Izzy and Slash is a huge reason why AFD sounds so great. Illusions is missing that and Slash doubling guitars only makes it more apparent.

Also, Izzy's last name is Stradlin'

That is badass.

Izzy was not there for UYI as much because the band was either drunk/stoned 24/7 (Duff, Slash, Steven) or doing god knows what (Axl). So he did what any sane, sober person would do -- submitted all his parts and then peaced out. When the band finally got their shit together to record, Izzy wasn't around because he probably didn't give a shit anymore. He's said before in interviews that some of the stuff he submitted to the band was already 2 yrs old, possibly even older  -- they never had their shit together to actually do anything with Izzy's stuff until the guy had already mentally checked out.

Izzy during the AFD years actually had stage presence and he complemented the rest of the band. There can be only so many stars in a band and he knew that, giving Axl and Slash maximum opportunities to hog the limelight. Look at the band interviews from the AFD era, Izzy and Steven barely get a word in between Axl and Slash.

On 6/4/2016 at 4:54 AM, spliff said:

Relax Axl's defense force.. it's just an interview/opinion

1. Chad Bader ‏@gnrbader  Jun 2

   Tired of listening to @JimBreuer badmouth @axlrose...Axl is killing it for AC/DC. All Breuer's ever done is talk shit about GN'R and Axl

   0 retweets0 likes

   Reply

    

   Retweet

    

    

    

    

   Like

    

    

    

   More
2.  

   Jim Breuer ‏@JimBreuer  Jun 2

   @gnrbader @axlrose Chad - I think he sounds fine ? For me ( as a fan) it's like trying to accept a step mother - I'm not ready ...

   0 retweets0 likes

   Reply

    

   Retweet

    

    

    

    

   Like

    

    

    

   More
3.  

   Chad Bader ‏@gnrbader  Jun 2

   @JimBreuer @axlrose Jim-That's fair enough and I hear you. Axl has taken a lot of heat over this and unjustly so. He deserves better...

   0 retweets

   Reply

    

   Retweet

    

    

    

    

   Like

    

    

    

   More

Jim BreuerVerified account‏@JimBreuer

@gnrbader @axlrose he's the innocent one here. I'm seeing him with G&R . THAT I'm excited to see

If you've seen any of the clips of him talking about GnR, it's pretty clear he doesn't think much of the band or Axl. His "praise" is usually comprised of backhanded compliments.

I'm guessing he wants to stay in Axl's good books in case he runs into him. 

Dave Grohl represents rock n' roll to him, but Axl, an icon and rock legend, doesn't? 

On 6/3/2016 at 0:28 PM, Blackstar said:

 

On 6/4/2016 at 6:48 PM, paranoyd androyd said:

100% accurate statement and i was a much bigger GNR fan than Metallica. there's no doubt Axl felt a ton of jealousy and anger during/after the Metallica tour. also, Slash was a huge Metallica fan back then so who knows if that might've bothered Axl as well.

So if he was so upset, you'd think he would do something to change things. It's noted that a number of times he would rant on stage about the audience not being into it enough (wonder what he thought of Coachella!). Night after night he'd play to a low energy crowd. It's amazing that a seasoned frontman like him wouldn't figure it the fuck out quick -- especially with the press ripping them a new one after every gig.

12 hours ago, RichardNixon said:

1. Jim Breuer  sucks.

2. As bloated as GNR was at the time, or how either band was recieved, GNR imploded, regardless  of this tour. If GNR had made a  album in 1995, 1996, they would have been in the same boat as AC/DC, Van Halen and Aerosmith. They would have weathered the grunge era and no one would have cared about the Metallica tour.

I don't know about that. I was in 9th grade in '96, nobody was talking about GnR. I had a few friends who were still grunge holdovers/cobain devotees (that scene was pretty much dead) and some who were metallica fans but I knew of no one in my circle who knew or cared about GnR. It was like they fell off the earth by that point. Most of my age group were moving into nu-metal and hip hop. The only older band that was really relevant that I can recall back then was NIN and RHCP. The scene had changed so much, it's hard to imagine a traditional GnR album or a UYI 3 connecting with a mass audience. The Spaghetti Incident only went 1x platinum and that was released when GnR were still the biggest band in the world. 

That being said, had the old band released something in '99 or 2000, I think it could have been a blockbuster -- the mood was right for that kind of music again.

For 25 years fans and critics have been bitching to stop overproducing albums, dump the keyboard players, background singers, bongo players, etc. We know Axl cares what his critics think and I'm sure he took it hard that his magnum opus UYI albums that he obsessed over were quickly eclipsed by Metallica and the grunge bands. 

And yet in 2008, we got an even more bloated album with Chinese Democracy -- and now, a tour with a raver/synth person and Dizzy on bongos again. Does he just not give a fuck?

I don't intend this as criticism (UYI 2 is my favorite Guns album), but you'd think he would atleast take 25 years worth of criticism and tone down the bloat in the songs, stage shows and even the clownish costume changes. I don't think the shows would miss a beat if he retired the piano playing from November Rain. Just have Dizzy handle the piano and focus on singing the song. It would atleast give that song some much needed energy. 

On 6/3/2016 at 6:20 AM, tsinindy said:

Of course you're wrong, mainly bc you weren't there.  Metallica consistently destroyed GnR on that specific tour.  What James said is totally on point, other than Metallica having a "lean" set list.  They played the same basic set they had been playing since they started touring in support of the black album.  

The audience at these shows was 1/4 hardcore Met fans, 1/4 hardcore GnR fans and 50% casual metal fans and chics, etc that had no real allegiance to either band.

Met came out night in and night out and won a lot of the 50% over with no bullshit, GnR did not.

I was there in 1992 at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis and trust me GnR was not nearly as awe-inspiring as they were just one year prior.  Metallica was every bit as good  as every other time I had seen them to that point which was 5-6.

if you think Metallica wasn't in GnR's league you need to reconsider that, bc that tour specifically and GnR's immediate demise was the second biggest factor in Metallica becoming the biggest band on the planet once GnR completely vacated the scene a year later.

 

This is awesome. Thanks for the retrospective. Do you think Guns lost a step on stage due to the absence of Izzy Stradlin' (the band members depleting factor) or was it more of a case of a band just losing touch with what the public wanted? 

On 6/3/2016 at 0:43 PM, Rovim said:

How do you know that?

They seem friendly enough

In 1989, Guns N' Roses rented out a studio above the Metro to work on their next album.

View Full Caption

LAKEVIEW — Guns N' Roses is coming back to Chicago in a month — but it's unlikely the visit will come close to rivaling the non-stop, two-month party the band secretly held here in the summer of 1989.

That's when GNR was still riding the high of its monster debut album "Appetite For Destruction." With money pouring in and booze and drugs piling up, the Los Angeles-based rockers needed somewhere to hide.

Somewhere quiet to work on a new album.

So they chose, somewhat inexplicably if they truly wanted peace and quiet, Wrigleyville.

For two months that summer, the band raised hell up and down Clark Street after booking a studio above the Metro and renting a pair of condos nearby.

There was a drunken Slash bunny-hopping everything in sight on Clark Street on his BMX bike. Cocaine was hidden in butter dishes back at the condos. Italian food was flung onto pesky fans from the balcony of the rented condos. Daughters of high-ranking cops were hit on. Squad cars were involved.

The bad boys of rock — regular "nobodys" to the Chicagoans they encountered, according to Slash — got into just about everything that summer ... except completing much music.

Several band members, in subsequent years, described their summer on the North Side as a wasted effort, mostly because frontman Axl Rose showed up weeks late as the band began to fracture.

It was a pivotal time, and not in a good way.

Now, after years apart, Slash, Axl and Duff McKagan are coming back to Chicago for two shows at Soldier Field (July 1 and 3) as part of a blockbuster summer reunion tour.

To mark their grand return, here are some highlights of 1989's Guns N' Roses' Clark Street Summer, culled from their own writings.

From lead guitarist Slash's 2007 best-selling autobiography "Slash":

"(Manager) Doug Goldstein and I went to Chicago to scope out where we would live and rehearse. We the chose the Cabaret Metro, the famous rock club on the north side of the city: it's a concert space that houses a separate club called the Smart Bar in the basement, and also has a theater upstairs. It was perfect; we took over the theater and when we were done for the day, the coolest bar in the city was waiting for us downstairs. We rented out a two-unit, brown brick apartment building a few miles down the road on Clark Street, right by the elevated train, to live on."

" ... Duff and I were such enthusiastically social boozers that the miles of bars along North Clark Street were a new playground for us — all within walking distance. My personal consumption at that point was a half-gallon bottle of Stoli per day, plus whatever I consumed when I was out at night. I'd wake up in the morning and fill a Solo cup 85 percent full with vodka, ice and a bit of cranberry juice. I called it breakfast of champions. Duff was in the same league."

"... We'd jam at the Metro for most of the afternoon, sometime into the evening, and then spend that rest of the night in and out of the bars."

"... In our plentiful free time, Duff and I also did our personal best to stay in shape. I had one of my BMX bikes out there and I used to ride it between the apartment and the rehearsal space, bunny-hopping over everything in sight, riding on the sidewalk. It was a good workout. Some days Duff and I even went to the gym, usually just after our morning vodkas. We'd go to one of those big public YMCAs with our security guard, Earl, to pump iron. We'd be down there in our jeans, doing sets between cigarette breaks — it was invigorating.

"We'd usually cool down afterward with cocktails at a sports bar. It didn't matter how big we were back home or how many records we'd sold or the shows we'd played; in Chicago, we were nobodys. We were just a couple of regular Joes to our fellow patrons; and there is not a bigger haven for regular Joes in America than the sports bars of North Clark Street.

"Every night we hung out at Smart Bar, which was very cool, but a much different rock scene than L.A. It was 1990, and that place was all about techno and industrial music like Ministry and Nine Inch Nails. We didn't really gel with people there, because we were clearly of a different variety, but we made a circle of friends anyway. We had dozens of chicks; it was like a shooting gallery in that place, but eventually I settled on one."

"All things considered, we managed to produce a few good tunes: 'Estranged,' 'Bad Apples,' and 'Garden of Eden.' Over all, I found our time in Chicago to be a huge waste, which will always be a point of contention between Axl and I. He seemed to think that we were really getting somewhere and that I was the one who ruined it all."

" ... We came home from drinking to find a feast of Italian food on the sidewalk in front of our apartment. ... Our favorite Italian place was right on the corner and apparently Axl had unloaded the band's entire dinner on a few people who had found out that we were living there and were heckling him from the street."

From Duff McKagan's 2011 autobiography, "It's So Easy (And Other Lies)":

"After two weeks in Chicago, Axl was still a no-show. Slash, Steven (Adler) and I started to get a little resentful. I mean, what the f---? Here we were in a city in which we had no interest, no friends — and no singer. ... I started to drink harder."

"This was also the point at which Steven really started to go overboard with his cocaine and heroin intake."

"One day, while I was tossing a ball around with a couple of kids and their parents, four unmarked police cars came careening down the street and screeched to a halt on the sidewalk in front of us. The detectives jumped out of their cars, screaming and yelling for me to get on the ground face down. I complied.

"... Then suddenly they pulled the car over and a cop told me to get out. ... They said they were sorry. They'd picked up the wrong guy. ... Apparently there was a child molester in the area who fit my description. ... They told me that they could still take me to jail for an open container and would be more than happy to do so. I suppressed my anger and shut my mouth. They let me go and I walked all they way back home."

From drummer Steven Adler's 2010 autobiography "My Appetite For Destruction":

"The studio was right down the street from the condos. It was awesome. It had a top-of-the-line PA and a grand piano, and my drums were miked. It was located on the fourth floor of a high-rise building. In the basement of the complex was a popular local nightclub. Our presence was kept secret so fans and the press wouldn't mob us. ... At night, Duff, Slash and I would go downstairs to the nightclub, where we would pick up girls and [expletive] them right in the club. We rarely took them back to the condo."

"We'd always have blow on us in the studio. But when I'd offer to cut [Slash and Duff] a line they would refuse. Then Slash and Duff would go in some other room and party. 'Hey, where ya going?' I would begin to follow them only to find out that they had shut the door on me."

"Seven weeks and five days later, Axl finally arrived. We have two days left in the studio and were anxious to show him all of the new material. He sat there like we were putting him through some kind of torture. Plain and simple, Axl wasn't interested in our material! He just wanted to record a new song he had been working on called "November Rain."

https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20160602/wrigleyville/guns-n-roses-chicago-their-wild-drunken-lost-summer-on-clark-street

Breuer is definitely not a fan of Axl/GnR: